SPARTACUS Increasingly Nuanced and Sensitive Evocation
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I actually gave an instant’s thought to calling this issue Spock-ta-cus – but luckily, what passes for sanity and good taste in my silly self took over. I mourn the loss of Leonard Nimoy too sincerely to be so flippant. Is true: we in science fiction fandom owe him and his great character an awful lot. 2001 was a liberating moment in the history of science fiction: it brought SF into the realm of art. The paperback release of Lord of the Rings cemented SF/fantasy’s hold on the boomer generation. Star Wars took science fiction more deeply into mainstream pop culture than it had ever gone – a perch from which SF still seems inextricable. Star Trek – and Spock, particularly – did something more basic. They brought girls into science fiction. Of course the ladies were here before – but not in such quantity, and not with the same enthusiasm, a zest bordering on delirium. Many of the women brought here by their attraction to Trek and Spock’s tortured reserve found a home in our weird community, and indeed, have lived long here, and prospered. I need mention only Lois McMaster Bujold. But we all benefited from Spock, and Nimoy’s SPARTACUS increasingly nuanced and sensitive evocation. issue no. 7 * Guy Lillian * The character of an elf-eared science fiction sidekick is an old one, dare I say a cliché. OPINIONS * march 2015 * Even I put a pointy-eared second banana 154A Weybridge Circle named Ral Carthall into a tweener space opera I penned on a summer vacation to California in Royal Palm beach FL 33411 * 1961. (I’ll bet Gene Roddenberry never came [email protected] * 318 218 2345 * up with a group of heroes like The Knights of the Universe, nor dared a title like The Hole in GHLIII Press Pub #1173 Space.) What was unique about Spock – at family, and in their wonderful universe. Nimoy’s least until Roddenberry packed it into half the Spock especially – a talented director and acting characters he subsequently created – was his coach, Nimoy knew the value of humor and the dimorphism – half-human, half-Vulcan. It iridescence it could bring to a performance. And in brought depth to Spock and a lot of social and the films, from The Wrath of Khan on through The dramatic potential to the show. Voyage Home, humor and – here it comes – humanity were at his core. He started out good. He Star Trek itself had some very fine episodes – got better, and better. “City”, “Mirror, Mirror”, “Amok Time”, you know the list – and some beasts; had I children I won’t mention Nimoy’s poetry, since I found it I’d threaten them with “The Way to Eden” if slightly sophomoric, and his other roles were they committed murder or treason. But I think competent and professional but nothing to write a it was in the animated series and especially the fanzine about. No, he’ll always be Spock to us, the middle movies that it hit its height. Of course man who would not be human, but became more so this was mostly due to the performers, secure with every passing moment. Vulcan salute. In the in their characterizations, in their acting books they call it the ta’al. Perhaps not all of Leonard Nimoy’s other roles are as undeserving of fanzine commentary as I say. Gaze upon the 1953 Republic serial Zombies of the Stratosphere, in which the 21-year-old Nimoy plays Narab, one of the invaders. At the end he turns on his Martian superiors and warns the Rocketman about the orbit-altering H-Bomb in the cave, enabling him to save the planet, and the day. Essays on the universality of moral heroism have been based on this scene, and bogus comparisons to the revelations of Edward Snowden voiced. That’s Nimoy for you, a conflicted hero from the start! Recently, as part of my duties as editor of the Sasquan program/souvenir book, I updated Dave Langford’s listing of winners of fandom’s two preeminent Fan Funds – TAFF and DUFF. Dave’s list includes not only delegates’ names, but the conventions they attended, the reports they published (if any), and the opponents they bested to achieve their wins. I looked forward to publishing, in the pages immediately preceding this encyclopedic list, personality squibs about the TAFF- and DUFFsters elected to attend the Spokane Worldcon. But there were worries. There is a TAFF race – Nina Horvath vs. Wolf van Witting. The able administrators, old friend Curt Phillips and new friend Jim Mowatt, were boggled at first by a seeming lack of interest – very few votes – and the FanFund list was a’broil with small recriminations. No one had access to the ballot. No one could read the ballot (font’s too small). Most importantly, no one knew the candidates or their nominators, because neither of the candidates was campaigning. I couldn’t help but remember when Rosy and I stood for DUFF in the distant Dark Ages – 2002. E-mail, Twitter and Facebook weren’t yet mankind’s (or at least fankind’s) preeminent methods of communication. Back then the fanzine ruled in fandom, and after our friendly opponents, the McInerneys, had published a zine promoting their candidacy, I tested the limits of fannish acceptability (it being declasse, apparently, to plug oneself) and published Guy & Rosy for DUFF!, a one-sheet wonder with which I flooded the ‘dom, ballot attached. As I recall, neither team did much of anything on the net. Together, the McIs and we garnered 150 votes and change, an undeniably successful race. So even though paper fanzines are now as antique a method of communication as smoke signals or cuneiform on clay, campaigning is still the way to go. Candidates going out for the vote, instead of being damned as uncouth, should be encouraged. Is for the good of the funds. But how? Many of the commentators on the listserv and elsewhere are operating on the assumption, not unreasonable, that younger active fans of today have no interest in fanzines, either paper or electronic. Are not blogs and lists, though more self-contained and self-referential than zines, likewise suited for vote-cadging campaigns? Apparently not – or else, no one is using them with any effectiveness. Things have apparently improved vis-à-vis the TAFF competition – check out the statements by the reigning administrators below – but campaigning, either first- or second-hand, remains near nil. There’s also a problem with this year’s DUFF. Although Australian delegate Bill Wright is “chuffed” with enthusiasm, rumors roll that Juanita Coulson, the reigning NA delegate, is unable to perform the duties of the job – raise funds, find candidates, conduct an election. Admiring Juanita as I do, I pray this is not so, but there are no candidates and there is no news. Said Bill in reply to my inquiries about DUFF, “I have not instigated a 2015 DUFF race, and it is most unlikely there will be one.” I can think of worse catastrophes than skipping a year in the DUFF race. Right now, every other North American Worldcon can boast both a TAFF and a DUFF delegate. That means that every other year, the Worldcon has no one to honor. Staggering the delegacies would give every Worldcon on these shores a chance to salute foreign fandom, TAFF one year, DUFF the next. So if DUFF sits fallow for a year, we can live with that. But to have the fund completely fade from fandom would be disastrous for international fandom. Bill is determinedly silent about DUFF developments. I have much confidence in him, but as a onetime DUFFer I’d still advise that someone from North America with resources and stability – preferably a former member – needs to step forward and join Bill in administering the next DUFF race. Australian candidates need to be found who are willing to travel to Kansas City in 2016 and to collect funds and run an election in the following year. I cannot understand why such souls haven’t already surfaced. DUFF and TAFF are great fannish institutions. As we can testify, they change the winners’ lives for the better. Just do as I did, and ask the two TAFF administrators, Curt Phillips: “TAFF is actually doing okay at the moment. The 2015 race is still underway with almost a month to go and although the votes were a little slow in getting started I'm seeing an uptick in the number of votes in the past few days. This year is first in which we've had a West-to-East race with all the candidates from Continental Europe, a trend that I find fascinating. Both our candidates are accomplished fans in their home areas and are largely unknown in America (though they both *have* shown that they do command some support from over here ...) and I think this is exactly the sort of thing that TAFF can do better than any other mechanism in Fandom that I know of. TAFF exists to stir the pot of fandom and get fans moving around whom most of us would otherwise never have a chance to meet, and whoever wins the 2015 race the fans who attend Sasquan are guaranteed to meet a fascinating active fan from a far part of the world who'll have unique viewpoints and unusual things to share with us. I think this race has the potential to be one of the most rewarding TAFF races in history - but potential goes for nothing if we don't make the most of it by *voting* in the TAFF election! (And thank you, Guy, for sending in your vote early.